Transparency is a top priority for CBO, and the agency continues to bolster its efforts to be transparent, building on a strong foundation laid over many years. One goal is to enhance the credibility of the agency’s analyses and processes by showing the connections to data, professional research, and feedback from experts. A second is to promote a thorough understanding of the analyses through accessible, clear, and detailed communication. A third is to help people gauge how estimates might change if policies or circumstances differed.
CBO’s efforts to be transparent help it continue its long-standing dedication to providing information that is objective, insightful, timely, and clearly presented and explained. The agency is committed to maintaining a level playing field regarding access to the information and analysis that it provides—ensuring that its work is made widely available to the Congress and the public. (However, work on proposals that have not been made public remains confidential to facilitate the development of legislation.)
CBO publicly releases all of its formal cost estimates and analytic reports. It delivers its work to interested Members of Congress and their staff, including, in particular, the sponsor of legislation or requester of a report, the Chairman and Ranking Member of the committees with jurisdiction over the subject at hand, and the budget committees. At about the same time, the agency posts the work on its website. In addition, an email service and Twitter announcements notify subscribers when the agency publishes work.
Testifying and Publishing Answers to Questions
CBO testifies at Congressional hearings and responds to requests from the Congress for public answers to specific questions. In addition to presenting oral remarks, answering questions at the hearings, and presenting written statements, the agency publishes answers to Members’ subsequent questions.
- Testimony on Transparency at CBO: An Update --
- Testimony on CBO’s Appropriation Request for Fiscal Year 2019
- Testimony on CBO’s Appropriation Request for Fiscal Year 2019
- Testimony on CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 --
- Testimony on CBO’s Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 --
- Testimony on Seven Things to Know About CBO’s Analyses --
- Testimony on the Congressional Budget Office’s Baseline Projections and Cost Estimates: Process and Principles --
- Testimony on the Congressional Budget Office’s Work in 2017 and Plans for the Future --
- Testimony on the Congressional Budget Office’s Work in 2017 and Plans for the Future --
Explaining Analytical Methods
CBO publishes various documents explaining its analysis. Also, in nearly every cost estimate, CBO includes a section describing the basis of the estimate. To enable researchers to replicate results, the agency posts the computer code for some analyses.
General Information
- How Taxes Affect the Incentive to Invest in New Intangible Assets (See pages 27-33)
- Accounting for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in the Federal Budget
- CBO's Cost Estimates Explained
- CBO’s Waterfall Model for Projecting Discretionary Spending
- How CBO Produces Fair-Value Estimates of the Cost of Federal Credit Programs: A Primer
- An Overview of CBO’s Microsimulation Tax Model
- How CBO Estimates the Cost of New Ships
- An Overview of CBOLT: The Congressional Budget Office Long-Term Model
- The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See Appendix B)
- How CBO and JCT Analyze Major Proposals That Would Affect Health Insurance Coverage
Technical Information
- Federal Support for Financing State and Local Transportation and Water Infrastructure (See Appendix)
- Operating Costs of Aging Air Force Aircraft (See pages 11-13)
- Fiscal Substitution of Investment for Highway Infrastructure: Working Paper 2018-08
- How CBO Adjusts for Survey Underreporting of Transfer Income in Its Distributional Analyses: Working Paper 2018-07
- Distribution of Federal Support for Students Pursuing Higher Education in 2016 (See pages 23-30)
- Comparing the Effects of Current Pay and Defined Benefit Pensions on Employee Retention: Working Paper 2018-06
- The Distribution of Household Income, 2014 (See pages 35-41)
- CBO’s Projection of Labor Force Participation Rates: Working Paper 2018-04
- Estimating and Projecting Potential Output Using CBO’s Forecasting Growth Model: Working Paper 2018-03
- How CBO Produces Its 10-Year Economic Forecast: Working Paper 2018-02
Technical Information Including Computer Code
Examples in Cost Estimates
Releasing Data
Some reports are supplemented with a comprehensive set of data files, and most reports are accompanied by files providing the data underlying figures.
Collections of Releases
Recent Publications with Data Files
- How Taxes Affect the Incentive to Invest in New Intangible Assets
- The Distribution of Household Income, 2015
- Funding for Overseas Contingency Operations and Its Impact on Defense Spending
- Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure, 1956 to 2017
- CBO’s 2018 Long-Term Projections for Social Security: Additional Information
- The U.S. Military’s Force Structure: Fiscal Year 2019 Update to Personnel Numbers and Costs
- Exploring the Growth of Medicaid Managed Care
- How CBO Adjusts for Survey Underreporting of Transfer Income in Its Distributional Analyses: Working Paper 2018-07
- Expired and Expiring Authorizations of Appropriations: Fiscal Year 2018, Revised
- Fair-Value Estimates of the Cost of Federal Credit Programs in 2019
Analyzing the Accuracy of CBO's Estimates
CBO regularly releases comparisons of the agency’s projections with actual outcomes.
- The Accuracy of CBO’s Outlay Estimates for Fiscal Year 2017
- Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 25-27)
- CBO’s Record of Projecting Subsidies for Health Insurance Under the Affordable Care Act: 2014 to 2016
- An Evaluation of CBO’s Past Outlay Projections
- CBO’s Economic Forecasting Record: 2017 Update
- CBO’s Revenue Forecasting Record
Comparing Current Estimates With Previous Ones
In several of its recurring publications, CBO explains the differences between this year’s projections and last year’s. In addition, cost estimates explain the extent to which provisions and estimates are similar to or different from earlier ones.
- CBO's Long-Term Social Security Projections: Changes Since 2017 and Comparisons With the Social Security Trustees' Projections
- How Taxes Affect the Incentive to Invest in New Intangible Assets
- An Analysis of the Navy's Fiscal Year 2019 Shipbuilding Plan
- An Update to the Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See page 16)
- The 2018 Long-Term Budget Outlook (See Appendix B)
- Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 20-25)
- The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 33-39 and Appendix A)
- The Distribution of Household Income, 2014 (See pages 33-34)
- Repealing the Individual Health Insurance Mandate: An Updated Estimate
- A Premium Support System for Medicare: Updated Analysis of Illustrative Options
Comparing CBO’s Estimates With Those of Other Organizations
CBO regularly makes comparisons with the budget projections of the Administration, with the economic projections of private forecasters and other government agencies, and sometimes with the policy analyses of various organizations. (Comparisons are often discussed with Congressional staff when time does not allow for preparing a formal presentation.)
- CBO's Long-Term Social Security Projections: Changes Since 2017 and Comparisons With the Social Security Trustees' Projections
- Funding for Overseas Contingency Operations and Its Impact on Defense Spending
- An Analysis of the Navy's Fiscal Year 2019 Shipbuilding Plan
- An Update to the Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 16-20)
- Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2018 to 2028 (See page 11)
- The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 39-41 and 117)
- An Analysis of the President’s 2018 Budget
Estimating the Effects of Policy Alternatives
To assist policymakers and analysts who may hold differing views about the most useful benchmark for considering possible changes to laws (and to make the influence of policy alternatives more transparent), CBO estimates the effects that some alternative assumptions about future policies would have on budgetary outcomes.
- Transitioning to Alternative Structures for Housing Finance: An Update
- The Deficit Reductions Necessary to Meet Various Targets for Federal Debt
- CBO’s Interactive Force Structure Tool
- The Long-Term Budget Outlook Under Alternative Scenarios for Fiscal Policy
- The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 88-92)
- Comparing a 355-Ship Fleet With Smaller Naval Forces
Characterizing Uncertainty Surrounding Estimates
CBO’s budget and economic estimates reflect the middle of a range of outcomes under a given set of policies. Discussion of uncertainty helps policymakers understand the factors that might cause estimates (or outcomes) to differ in the future.
- An Analysis of the Navy's Fiscal Year 2019 Shipbuilding Plan
- Federal Support for Financing State and Local Transportation and Water Infrastructure (See Chapter 2)
- An Update to the Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 14-16)
- Workbook For How Changes in Economic Conditions Might Affect the Federal Budget
- How Changes in Economic Conditions Might Affect the Federal Budget
- The 2018 Long-Term Budget Outlook (See pages 23-25)
- Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance Coverage for People Under Age 65: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 19-20)
- The Budget and Economic Outlook: 2018 to 2028 (See pages 32-33, 62, 78, and 129-130)
- The 2016 Long-Term Budget Outlook (See Chapter 7)
Visualizing Data
To make CBO’s projections easier to understand, CBO publishes slide decks and infographics about the budget and the economy.
- The Distribution of Household Income, 2015
- Public Spending on Transportation and Water Infrastructure, 1956 to 2017
- The 2018 Long-Term Budget Outlook in 25 Slides
- The Budget Outlook for 2018 to 2028 in 11 Slides
- The Economic Outlook for 2018 to 2028 in 30 Slides
- Mandatory Spending in 2017: An Infographic
- Discretionary Spending in 2017: An Infographic
- The Federal Budget in 2017: An Infographic
- Revenues in 2017: An Infographic
- Factors Affecting the Labor Force Participation of People Ages 25 to 54
Conducting Outreach
The most important form of outreach is the direct communication between CBO and the Congress in person, by phone, and by email. In addition, numerous experts participate in the agency’s Panels of Economic and Health Advisers. The agency obtains many external reviews of its work. And the agency publishes blog posts highlighting key issues.
Panels of Advisers
Podcasts
Presentations about CBO’s Processes
- The Effect of Employer Matching and Defaults on Workers' TSP Savings Behavior
- CBO’s 10-Year Budget and Economic Projections
- CBO’s Long-Term Social Security Projections
- Transparency at CBO
- CBO’s Health Insurance Simulation Model: Overview of Planned Updates
- Baseline Budget Projections
- How CBO Estimated the Budgetary Effects of Financial Legislation: Elements of H.R. 10 and S. 2155
- CBO’s 10-Year Economic Forecast and How It Is Produced
- An Overview of CBO’s Estimates of Federal Subsidies for Health Insurance for People Under Age 65: 2017 to 2027
- Estimating the Costs of Proposals Affecting Health Insurance Coverage
Presentations about CBO’s Work in Progress
- Allocating State and Local Taxes to U.S. Households
- Potential Spending on Veterans’ Health Care, 2018–2028
- How CBO Is Updating Its Health Insurance Simulation Model
- Operating Costs and Aging of Air Force Aircraft
- Exploring the Growth of Medicaid Managed Care
- Updating CBO’s Health Insurance Simulation Model (HISIM)
- Prices for and Spending on Specialty Drugs in Medicare Part D and Medicaid
- The 2018 Outlook for Navy Shipbuilding
Presentations about CBO’s Findings
- Labor Force Experiences of Recent Veterans
- Replacing Military Personnel in Some Support Positions With Federal Civilians
- The Increasing Costs of the Department of Defense
- How Taxes Affect the Incentive to Invest in New Intangible Assets
- An Overview of The 2018 Budget and Economic Outlook
- Paying for College: What the Federal Investment Means for Students and Universities
- Productivity and Growth in CBO’s Forecasts
- CBO’s Economic and Budget Projections
- Analysis of Alternatives for Changing Military Health Care
- Approaches to Making Infrastructure Spending More Productive
Other Outreach
- Plans to Update CBO’s Health Insurance Simulation Model
- An Update on Transparency at CBO (See "Consultation With Outside Experts" on pages 15-16 and "Accessibility" on page 18)